Africa Allah goes #OnLive with #GrandmasterJay 11.14.13

Posted By: DIRadioCast On: November 14, 2013

Live Q&A : Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013 at 7PM EST

“Who the Hell is Grandmaster Jay?”

DIRadioCast Urban New Media Network GM Africa Allah goes in-depth with the #BeamzDJ Brand Ambassador, The Legendary Grandmaster Jay. The interactive Q&A conversation will touch on four decades of #HipHop, the emergence of disruptive technology in the #MusicIndustry and the new Beamz DJ pro technology scheduled to be unveiled during the 2014 International CES .

John Jay Johnson better known by his stage name Grandmaster Jay, is an American MC/DJ and producer. Over his career, he has been known by several pseudonyms including “MC Master Jay”, “Jay Blaze”, “The Grand Imperial DJ Prince”, and “Jay Blax”.

He was crowned the World Mastermix Champion two years in a row (1984–1985) and was one of the premier battle emcees of the early hip hop era.In the early days of hip hop, he was one of the first rappers to garner enough popularity on both the East Coast and the Deep South to attract to the attention of Sugar Hill Records creator Sylvia Robinson. In 1981 he was presented to Ms. Robinson by Angie B (Angie Stone) of the first female rap group, The Sequence after performing at a rap concert in Richmond, Virginia Ms. Robinson offered Jay a recording contract on the spot.. His popularity grew and he became known as one of the most popular and talented battle emcees

As his search for a good show deejay proved fruitless, he began to learn the art of deejaying and rose through those ranks as rapidly as he did an emcee. In 1982 his name was changed to Grandmaster by promoter Hosea Foxx on a flier and it stuck. Being one of the only deejays who was also an emcee, the tag DJMC was appended to his name. The Grandmaster Jay and The Fresh Five Emcees dominated the Va hip hop street scene with their combination of witty rhymes and Jay’s turntable shows.

In 1984 Grandmaster Jay became the World Supremacy Mastermix Tournament winner in which he eliminated 189 DJ crews by both rapping and deejaying on what appeared to be 4-6 turntables simultaneously on tape. In an era prior to multitrack recorders and samplers, GMJ demonstrated that he was ahead of his time by unveiling a recording technique that many call the first true mix tape. In February 1985 he deejayed and hosted the Electric Explosion Fresh Fest at The Richmond Coliseum, Va which featured Run DMC, Kurtis Blow, Whodini, The Fat Boys, Captain Rock, Divine Sounds, The New York City Breakers. This was the first hip hop concert to sell out a major arena with 18,000 in attendance.